Mark Twain
Tuolumne County, Tuolumne County, California
Marker Inscription
Mark Twain Bret Harte Trail Mark Twain Cabin Stopping place of packers carrying supplies to miners. Often 200 jackasses on hill over night furnishing concert suggesting name "Jackass Hill". Very coarse gold found here, $10,000 taken from 100 square feet of ground. Quartz found containing 3/4 of total weight in gold. Mark Twain, Steve, Jim, and Bill Gillis, and Dick Stoker, the "Dick Baker" in "Roughing It", were cronies. Mark wrote here "Jumping Frog of Calaveras" from notes made at Angels Camp Tavern.
Erected by Tuolumne County Chamber Commerce
The Story
On Jackass Hill—named, the story goes, for the pack trains that rested here on the way to the mines—prospectors pulled remarkably coarse gold from the surrounding gulches. In 1864-65 a young Samuel Clemens holed up in a cabin here with the Gillis brothers and other cronies, and from notes taken at nearby Angels Camp he wrote "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," the tale that first made him famous as Mark Twain.
Why it matters
This rough mining camp gave American letters its first taste of Mark Twain, born of the Gold Country's tall tales.
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Related people
- · Mark Twain
- · Bret Harte
Themes & tags
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